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EDITOR’S NOTE: Two quick reminders about upcoming LHF events. Tickets are still available for Sunday’s Gonna Take Us All Ball at McGinty’s, featuring Congressman Jamie Raskin, AFA president Sara Nelson, the DC Labor Chorus and a very special surprise musical guest TBA.

Also, register now for this year’s Great Labor Arts Exchange – June 20-22 in Silver Spring, MD -- and save; Early Bird rates go up March 1!

- Chris

ARTS NEWS BRIEFS

Chicago History Museum Workers Launch Organizing Effort

Workers at the Chicago History Museum released a public letter Wednesday morning announcing their intent to join AFSCME Council 31. “The history of Chicago is deeply rooted in the labor movement, and we are honored to not only preserve and share, but to make our own place in that history alongside our colleagues at cultural institutions across Chicago,” Chicago History Museum Workers United organizing committee members wrote in an open letter. AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Children’s Theatre Company Staff Ratify First Union Contract

Front-of-house workers at the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis/St Paul, who are represented by Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 13, have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement.

AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Free Black History Month Virtual Screenings 2/24-2/28

From February 24th (10am EST) through Feb 28th (11pm), the Workers Unite! FilmFest is screening a double-billing of "Becoming Frederick Douglass" and "Harriet Tubman: Visions Of Freedom" virtually and on-demand on their Eventive page. These are two new docs from filmmaker Stanley Nelson, available worldwide and at no cost to viewers.

Hardball Press seeks reviewers

“I'm looking for reviewers for Asian Workers Stories,” writes Hard Ball Press publisher Tim Sheard. Email him at sheard2001@gmail.com

The Mail/Readers Write

We’re pithy: “Love your Labor Heritage emails,” writes Marilyn Anderson from Rochester, New York. “They are full of pithy information as well as being visually interesting.”

Finding Women’s Work: “I just listened to the piece interviewing John Beck on Our Daily Work, Our Daily Lives (Labor Heritage Power Hour 2/13),” writes Wendy Kahn. “It was really interesting. I looked at a list of some of their recent programs and saw one I'd really like to hear, ‘The Limits of Prosperity: Women's Work and Class in the Department Store’ probably of interest since my grandmother and her sisters all worked in department stores (mostly in Cleveland). The program apparently aired on Feb, 12; where can I find it now?”

Absolutely; they’re all archived here.

Best labor musicals? “Lisa and I cast our votes in the Labor Oscars,” writes Kurt Stand, “though I must register one objection: far from being one of the worst labor films, I think Pajama Game is actually quite good. Perhaps next year there could be a category of best labor musicals, surely it would be amongst those candidates. And as to films -- here is my list of 28 anti-fascist movies.”

PICKET SIGN OF THE WEEK

Taken by Labor Notes’ Lisa Xu at the Federal Unionists Network protest in Manhattan on Wednesday.

Labor songs for the fightback: Chris and Elise spin labor songs to boost your spirits. Click here to pledge support for the show and WPFW (be sure to scroll down and select “The Labor Heritage Power Hour – Chris Garlock, Elise Bryant”. 

CLICK HERE to listen to the show!

Like this newsletter? Share the wealth and pass it along to colleagues, friends and family!

LABOR VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man) – Randy Newman

LABOR SONG OF THE WEEK

We Do the Work – Jon Fromer

LABOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Billionaires with power aren't going to use it to make your life better. They just make themselves richer.”

- CWA tweet

LABOR ART

One of the posters donated by Kurt and Lisa Stand that will be raffled off at LHF’s Gonna Take Us All Ball on Sunday.

CLICK HERE for our complete labor arts calendar; look for our Labor Arts Calendar edition on Monday

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

Fri-Sun: The Garbologists

Sun: Tunes from Our Backyard—Songs of the WPA California Folk Music Project

Sun: 2025 MLK "Gonna Take Us All" Ball

Ongoing:

Historic photographs of Yakima Valley farmworkers

Gospel of the Working Class: Exhibition

LABOR HISTORY TODAY

February 21, 1972

United Farm Workers of America granted a charter by the AFL-CIO.

LABOR HISTORY TODAY PODCAST
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW!

Black labor in Richmond: Peter Rachleff, Co-Executive Director of the East Side Freedom Library, a retired professor of history at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and author of "Black Labor in Richmond, 1865 -1890," reveals part of that hidden history, that of Black and White workers in the second half of the 19th century. 

LABOR HISTORY QUIZ OF THE WEEK
Where did founders of the 1892 People’s Party meet?
New York City
Chicago
St Louis

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: Susan B. Anthony was a suffragist, abolitionist and labor activist.

"The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too."

Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2024 program, which includes our annual Solidarity Forever Award, the Great Labor Arts Exchange, the DC Labor FilmFest and much more (check out our website for details!).

Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. 

RECENT NEWSLETTERS

Cast your vote for 2025 Labor Oscars! (2/14)

Artists fight to save EMF’s “heart and soul” (2/7)

Power At Work awards first-ever Labor Grammys (1/31)

Is ‘Severance’ a show about unions? (1/24)

SAG-AFTRA donates $1 million for LA fires relief (1/17)

Tabitha Arnold’s Gospel of the Working Class (1/10)

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